Posted in Others
More than 300 looted antiquities, estimated to be worth more than EUR15 million, were displayed to the press this morning in Rome, having been repatriated to Italy after they were discovered in a warehouse in Switzerland.
It was a scene slightly reminiscent of a Victorian detective novel, in which the robber and his looted candlesticks is unveiled before an impressed gathering of country house guests.
Only today's unveiling took place inside the Colosseum rather than on the pages of a 19th century novel and while there was no criminal present, there was plenty of loot, which consisted of objects such as Etruscan ceramic vases, bronze statues from Sardinia and frescoes from Pompeii – 337 objects in total.
A investigation, code-named Andromeda, led by the carabinieri and the Swiss authorities, discovered about 20,000 artefacts in the free port of Geneva, stored in warehouses that were associated with an unnamed Japanese dealer.
The artefacts were illegally taken from archaeological sites in Lazio, Puglia, Sardinia and the area of Magna Grecia – southern Italy and Sicily. They span a period off 1,200 years, dating from the eighth century BC to the fourth AD.
According to Dr Giuseppe Proietti, superintendent for archaeological heritage in Rome, this is one of the most important recoveries of looted antiquities in recent times. He said: "This is one of the most significant recoveries of our national heritage to this day. We hope to return these artefacts to their original localities so that they can be displayed within their historical contexts."
When the Swiss authorities and the Italian carabinieri began to investigate in 2008, the story developed dramatically in a way that could lead to a sequel of The Medici Conspiracy, a factual book that pieces together the circumstances of the Medici antiquities scandal.
Their attention was initially drawn to the British art dealer Robin Symes, who curated the sale of the Venus of Morgantina to the Getty Museum in Malibù. According to the Italian carabinieri, Symes moved to Switzerland, where his activities were monitored. The Swiss and Italian team then discovered several sham companies, some of which were based in tax havens.
Further inquiries led the authorities to a company administrator in Basle who was involved in managing trafficked archaeological objects for his clients – one of whom was Mr Symes, say the Italian carabinieri.
When the carabinieri searched the administrator's luxurious villa in Basle, they found extensive documentation detailing antiquities that were illegally taken from sites around Italy. The documents indicated that Geneva's free port was used as a clearing centre for the illicitly imported artefacts. In December 2008, nine properties and warehouses were sequestered. This is where the 20,000 archaeological artefacts were discovered.
It took the authorities the whole of 2009 to catalogue the antiquities. The 337 objects repatriated back to Italy have been proved to be from illicit Italian excavations. The majority of the objects remain under Swiss jurisdiction.
driver from www.independent.co.uk
Posted in Others
In a tense, historic vote, Catalonia's regional parliament yesterday banned Spain's "national fiesta" – bullfighting, handing a victory to animal rights activists, who predicted the start of a bloodless era across the country.
As of 1 January 2012, the choreographed estocada de muerte – or death knell – will be history throughout the wealthy, independent-minded region and the fighting bull – toro bravo – will receive protection under Catalonia's animal rights laws. The 96-year-old Monumental bullring in Barcelona has already demanded more than €300m (£250m) from the regional government to compensate for losses.
"Today five centuries of cruelty have come to an end," said Elena Escoda, representative of the Catalan citizens' group Prou! (Enough!) that lobbied for the ban.
"From today onward, ethics must be considered a valid reason to question our traditions," she went on.
The international association People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) also applauded the vote. "The people have spoken," the group said in a statement. "Cruelty to animals, disguised as tradition, will no longer be tolerated."
Politicians elsewhere in the land of banderilleros and sequined suits of lights have expressed fears that their regions could be the next target of animal rights groups. The legislative offensive is a quantum leap from activists' previous protest-centred tactics or city-wide declarations against bullfighting. In anticipation of yesterday's vote, the government of Madrid – home to the emblematic Las Ventas bullring – even passed a law protecting bullfighting as a "cultural value" to fend off an anticipated onslaught. Anyone violating the law, which includes tax breaks to bullfight organisers, could face fines of up to €1.2m.
Activists cheered and hugged as the votes were counted on a giant screen: 68 in favour of outlawing the matadors' manoeuvres to 55 against, with nine abstentions. Nationalists, eager to distance themselves from bull-loving Madrid, overwhelmingly supported the ban, although most deputies were allowed to vote according to their consciences. But the issue is so delicate that ballots were kept secret in a preliminary vote to determine whether the original citizens' proposal – backed by 180,000 signatures – would even make it to the official docket.
"Our responsibility is progress. That could be our contribution to future generations," said Joan Puigcercos, leader of the separatist Catalonian party, a staunch supporter of the ban.
The despondent corrida crowd, which waved capes outside the parliament, immediately vowed to challenge the Catalan prohibition in the Spanish Supreme Court. The conservative Popular Party plans to fight for nationwide legislation that would protect the sport Ernest Hemingway celebrated in Death in the Afternoon. They accuse the Catalonian deputies of using the bullfighting ban to symbolically separate the region from the rest of the bull-rearing, cape-watching country.
"They're not looking to protect bulls – they want a radical break with everything identified with Spain," said Ramó*Luis Valcarcel, head of the Murcia regional government, on the south-eastern coast.
The nation's bullfighters reacted to the defeat with sadness and anger. At first in denial, they eventually joined a last-minute lobby to save Catalonia's fiesta from what seemed increasingly like the inevitable death in the ring. They joined a platform of left-wing intellectuals, writers and artists, who defended the sport so often depicted in the work of Picasso or Goya – or at least citizens' freedom to choose whether or not to watch it.
"They should have respected the rights of people who freely decide to go to a bullring to see a spectacle that is so much a part of our heritage," said bullfighter Juan José Padilla after the vote.
"It seems like we are back in the time of the dictatorship," added the popular matador Curro Romero.
Matador Manuel Jesus – known as El Cid – said he felt "tremendous rage".
"I feel like here the bull is what is least important," he said. "The fiesta has been used by Catalan nationalists as a weapon against Spain; a way for them to say that we aren't Spaniards; we don't want anything that even sounds Spanish."
Catalonia is not the first region of Spain to put those magenta capes and knotted black caps out of business. The Canary Islands banned the corrida 19 years ago, but few people on the mainland minded because the islands off the African coast were seen to have little bullfighting tradition. Catalonia, anchored in northern mainland Spain, is different. Here bullfighting did enjoy a strong, though now dwindling, following. The head of the regional government, Jose Montilla, is known as a fan. Last year an appearance by José Tomás in the Barcelona ring sold out in 50 minutes, with tickets fetching as much as €3,000. But the anti-movement in Catalonia charges fast. Picketers smeared in fake blood are common outside the Barcelona bullring and nude protests fill public squares. Before the vote, the World Society for the Protection of Animals presented parliamentarians with 140,000 signatures from 120 countries urging Catalonia to "lead the way for other regions and countries to follow so the cruelty of bullfighting can be made history".
Bullfighting supporters point out that traditional Catalan fiestas known as Correbous – in which bulls are chased through the streets with their horns on fire – will be allowed under the modified animal rights law.
"The death of the animal is no small difference," Josep Rull, a member of the Catalan nationalist party, said in defence of the practice. But the Correbous remains high on the agenda of international animal activists.
Bullfighting in literature
Ernest Hemingway
"The chances are that the first bullfight any spectator attends may not be a good one artistically; for that to happen there must be good bullfighters and good bulls; artistic bullfighters and poor bulls do not make interesting fights, for the bullfighter who has ability to do extraordinary things with the bull is capable of producing the intensest degree of emotion in the spectator but will not attempt them with a bull which he cannot depend on to charge..."
From "Death in the Afternoon"
A L Kennedy
"The life of the matador must be governed by the same dark mathematics which calculates a soldier's ability to tolerate combat: so many months in a tour of duty, so many missions flown and mental change, mental trauma, becomes a statistical inevitability.
"But in the corrida, the matador is not exposed to physical and emotional damage by duty, or conscription – he is a volunteer, a true believer, a lover with his love."
From "On Bullfighting"
driver from www.independent.co.uk
Posted in Others
UNION STATION in Los Angeles has been restored as a fine example of the Art Deco architecture that typified California in the 1930s. It has served as a backdrop for many Hollywood films, from “Union Station” (naturally) to “Blade Runner” and “Star Trek: First Contact”. It was the last grand station to be built before America’s passenger railways went into what you might call terminal decline.
Today it is a hub for Metrolink commuter trains and Amtrak services to faraway cities such as Chicago and Seattle. These trains have to pull in and then back out in a clumsy manoeuvre. But there are plans for through tracks in time to carry the high-speed services that California is desperate to have by 2020 under an ambitious $42 billion plan to connect San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento.
California’s plans were given a boost by Barack Obama’s stimulus package last year. This earmarks a lump sum of $8 billion, plus $1 billion a year, to help construct fast rail corridors around America (see map). Such lines are common in Europe, Japan and, increasingly, China, yet the only thing at all like them in America is Amtrak’s Acela service from Boston via New York to Washington, DC. It rarely reaches its top speed of 150mph (240kph) and for much of the way manages little more than half that, because the track is not equipped for higher speeds. Acela, like virtually all trains run by publicly owned Amtrak, has to use tracks belonging to freight railways, whose trains trundle along at 50mph; passenger trains must stick below 80mph. Despite the excitement of railway buffs and the enthusiasm of environmentalists, high-speed rail in America is likely to mean a few more diesel-electric intercity trains at 110mph, not swish electric expresses going nearly twice as fast.
But the problem with America’s plans for high-speed rail is not their modesty. It is that even this limited ambition risks messing up the successful freight railways. Their owners worry that the plans will demand expensive train-control technology that freight traffic could do without. They fear a reduction in the capacity available to freight. Most of all they fret that the spending of federal money on upgrading their tracks will lead the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), the industry watchdog, to impose tough conditions on them and, in effect, to reintroduce regulation of their operations. Attempts at re-regulation have been made in Congress in recent years, in response to rising freight rates. “The freight railroads feel they are under attack,” says Don Phillips, a rail expert in Virginia.
America’s railways are the mirror image of Europe’s. Europe has an impressive and growing network of high-speed passenger links, many of them international, like the Thalys service between Paris and Brussels or the Eurostar connecting London to the French and Belgian capitals. These are successful—although once the (off-balance-sheet) costs of building the tracks are counted, they need subsidies of billions of dollars a year. But, outside Germany and Switzerland, Europe’s freight rail services are a fragmented, lossmaking mess. Repeated attempts to remove the technical and bureaucratic hurdles at national frontiers have come to nothing.
Staggering progress
Amtrak’s passenger services are sparse compared with Europe’s. But America’s freight railways are one of the unsung transport successes of the past 30 years. They are universally recognised in the industry as the best in the world.
Their good run started with deregulation at the end of Jimmy Carter’s administration. Two years after the liberalisation of aviation gave rise to budget carriers and cheap fares, the freeing of rail freight, under the Staggers Rail Act of 1980, started a wave of consolidation and improvement. Staggers gave railways freedom to charge market rates, enter confidential contracts with shippers and run trains as they liked. They could close passenger and branch lines, as long as they preserved access for Amtrak services. They were allowed to sell lossmaking lines to new short-haul railroads. Regulation of freight rates by the Interstate Commerce Commission was removed for most cargoes, provided they could go by road.
Before deregulation America’s railways were going bust. The return on capital fell from a meagre 4.1% in the 1940s to less than 3% in the 1960s. In 1970 the collapse of the giant Penn Central caused a huge shock, including a financial crisis. By 1980 a fifth of rail mileage was owned by bankrupt firms. Rail’s share of intercity freight had slumped to 35% from 75% in the 1920s. Tracks were neglected and fell into disrepair, leading to a downward spiral of speed restrictions and deteriorating service. The term “standing derailment” was coined to describe the toppling-over of stationary freight wagons when the track gave way beneath their wheels.
Several factors had combined to bring about this sorry state of affairs. Services and rates were tightly regulated. Companies were obliged to run passenger services that could not make a profit. And road haulage received a huge boost from the building of the interstate highway system, which began in the late 1950s. Although this was supposed to be financed by taxes on petrol and diesel, railmen saw it as a form of subsidy to a new competitor, the nationwide trucking industry. In a neat twist, the poor condition of today’s highways and the lack of public money for repairs have tilted the competitive advantage back to a rejuvenated rail-freight industry.
Return of regulation
The freight railroads have learned to live with the limited Amtrak passenger services on their tracks. Occasionally they moan that Amtrak pays only about a fifth of the real cost of this access. Some railmen calculate that this is equivalent to a subsidy of about $240m a year, on top of what Amtrak gets from the government. Freight-rail people regard this glumly as just part of the cost of doing business, but their spirits will hardly lift if the burden grows.
Their main complaint, however, is that one Amtrak passenger train at 110mph will remove the capacity to run six freight trains in any corridor. Nor do they believe claims that PTC, due to be in use by 2015, will increase capacity by allowing trains to run closer together in safety. So it will cost billions to adapt and upgrade the lines to accommodate both a big rise in freight traffic and an unprecedented burgeoning of intercity passenger services. Indeed, some of the money that the White House has earmarked will go on sidings where freight trains can be parked while intercity expresses speed by.
Federal and state grants will flow to the freight railroads to help them upgrade their lines for more and faster passenger trains. But already rows are breaking out over the strict guidelines the FRA will lay down about operations on the upgraded lines, such as guarantees of on-time performance with draconian penalties if they are breached and the payment of indemnities for accidents involving passenger trains. The railroads are also concerned that the federal government will be the final arbiter of how new capacity created with the federal funds will be allocated between passenger and freight traffic. And they are annoyed that there was little consultation before these rules were published.
There have been some heated meetings between freight-railroad managers and FRA officials. Henry Posner III, chairman of Iowa Interstate Railroad, ruefully notes that freight railroads, in the form of passengers and regulation, “are getting back things that caused trouble”.
driver from www.economist.com
Posted in Others
GENEVA — Switzerland's popular Glacier Express tourist train derailed Friday in the Alps, killing one person and injuring 42 others on its spectacular journey between Zermatt and St. Moritz.
Police said 12 of the injured were in serious condition and most of the passengers were Japanese tourists. Rescue workers were seen loading a few injured passengers onto medical helicopters to be flown out for treatment. Police declined to identify the person who died.
Rail interruptions, let alone accidents, are rare in Switzerland. The Glacier Express – dubbed the "slowest express train in the world" – is known as much for its majestic mountain climbs as for its pedestrian 18 mph (30 kph) average speed.
Valais authorities said two of the train cars drove off the tracks and a third tipped over, but the cause of the accident wasn't immediately known. The three cars were at the back of the train and the derailment took place near the town of Fiesch and the mouth of the Aletsch glacier, Europe's largest icemass.
Rail traffic remained closed near the accident site Friday evening and local police were investigating.
The 80-year-old Glacier Express runs several times a day all year round, carrying some 250,000 passengers a year.
It starts in Zermatt, at the base of Switzerland's iconic Matterhorn mountain, and rumbles through terrain over a mile (1.6 kilometers) above sea level, surrounded by many of the highest Alpine peaks. After 7 1/2 hours, 291 bridges and 91 tunnels, it ends in St. Moritz – one of the world's ritziest winter resorts. Train cars have special large windows that sweep high onto the roof so tourists can take in the vast mountain vistas.
A celebration of Swiss engineering, the Glacier Express offers breathtaking views of mountains, glaciers, viaducts across rushing streams and switchback rail lines that sometimes go in full circles to spiral up or down the steepest slopes.
The accident was the country's worst rail mishap since 2006, when three men died after a runaway train traveled for miles (kilometers) without brakes before crashing into another train.
Posted in Others
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Ten Republicans on Thursday entered the race for the U.S. Senate seat held by the late Robert C. Byrd, joining a field where West Virginia's popular Democratic governor is seen as the front-runner.
John Raese, an industrialist and media owner, and recent U.S. House candidate Mac Warner are the best known among the GOP hopefuls. Gov. Joe Manchin and two other Democrats filed their paperwork earlier this week.
The Republicans filing Thursday include a substitute teacher's aide also running for the state Legislature, and a California man who attracted 44 votes in the party's 2008 New Hampshire presidential primary.
The parties will hold Aug. 28 primaries before the Nov. 2 general election. The candidate filing period ends Friday. U.S. Senate candidates must be residents of the state they wish to serve by Election Day.
November's winner will serve the two-plus years that would remain in Byrd's term and take over from Sen. Carte Goodwin, Manchin's Democratic appointee to the seat. Goodwin, 36, was sworn in Tuesday and has said he does not plan to run.
Manchin, a centrist who won his second term with nearly 70 percent of the vote, was the first candidate to file on Tuesday and is generally seen as the front-runner. But he must first prevail against primary rivals Ken Hechler, 95, a former congressman and secretary of state, and ex-Republican state lawmaker Sheirl Fletcher.
The GOP's Raese has unsuccessfully waged three prior statewide campaigns, including two for the Senate. The 60-year-old's wealth could aid his candidacy given the special election's shortened timeframe. He pumped $2.2 million of his own money into his failed 2006 Senate bid, his most recent.
Warner, a developer, lost the May Republican primary in the 1st Congressional District. Morgantown-based like Raese, Warner hails from a political family that includes brothers who have been state GOP chairman, the party's 2004 nominee for governor and U.S. attorney for southern West Virginia. Warner's House campaign had received backing from tea party supporters.
Among the other Republican candidates, Albert Howard of San Pedro, Calif., demanded a recount after his 12th-place, 2008 showing in New Hampshire. Lynette Kennedy McQuain, meanwhile, is already a GOP nominee for the House of Delegates in Marion County.
The legislation setting the special election process for Byrd's seat allows for such dual candidacies. State GOP lawmakers secured that provision so Rep. Shelley Moore Capito could seek Byrd's seat while she also campaigned for a sixth U.S. House term. Considered the Republican's top prospect for the Senate race, she decided against running on Wednesday.
Republicans Thomas Ressler of Falling Waters, Kenneth A. Culp of Summersville, Charles G. "Bud" Railey of Bridgeport, Harry C. Bruner Jr. of Charleston and Buckhannon residents Scott H. Williams and Daniel Scott Rebich also filed Thursday.
Byrd was history's longest-serving member of Congress when he died last month at 92.
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LOS ANGELES — Sheriff's detectives are investigating a claim that Mel Gibson's ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva engaged in attempted extortion against the actor-director, an official said Wednesday.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore declined to provide further details about the claim by lawyers for Gibson or say when the inquiry might conclude.
"Detectives will follow the investigation wherever it leads," Whitmore said.
Grigorieva's spokesman Stephen Jaffe denied any wrongdoing on the part of his client, a Russian singer.
"To specifically address the allegations, my client, Ms. Grigorieva, has repeatedly stated that there is no credible evidence whatsoever of extortion by her, and she stands steadfastly by that statement," Jaffe said.
Detectives interviewed Grigorieva, 40, earlier this month after she claimed Gibson abused her during an incident in January.
Detectives received CDs of audio recordings that will be evaluated for a potential case against Gibson.
Authorities also attended a hearing last week in the former couple's custody dispute over their 8-month-old daughter. Records in that case are sealed.
Whitmore offered no timetable on when the case might be presented to the district attorney's office, which will decide whether to pursue charges against either Gibson or Grigorieva.
Posted in Others
Scroll down for the memo
A tough new memo from a House committee probing the Gulf oil spill exposes the Interior Department under Presidents Bush and Obama for its failure to properly oversee offshore oil drilling operations. The three most recent Interior Secretaries -- Gale Norton (2002-2006), Dirk Kempthorne (2006-2009), and Ken Salazar (2009-present) -- all come in for withering criticism and are due to testify at congressional hearing on Tuesday, where they are sure to be asked tough questions about their tenure.
The memorandum from the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Democratic majority staff takes perhaps the toughest stance on Norton's controversial tenure (she was recently the subject of a Justice Department probe into whether she acted improperly by granting Royal Dutch Shell several valuable oil shale leases on federal land shortly before she took a job with the oil giant -- DOJ has reportedly closed its probe as of last week).
Just two weeks after Bush was sworn into office in 2001, he asked Vice President Dick Cheney to head a task force to develop energy policy. The much-criticized task force met privately with oil and gas executives and Cheney repeatedly refused to disclose their identities. In May 2001, the group issued its report, which stated that "exploration and production from the OCS [Outer Continental Shelf] has an impressive environmental record." It also stated that existing environmental permitting laws and regulations, at the federal and state level, were creating "delays and uncertainties [that] can hinder proper energy exploration and production projects."
As the federal official responsible for implementing much of the administration's new energy policy, Norton encouraged offshore drilling with incentives for oil companies but she "imposed few new safety standards on offshore drilling operations," according to the memo.
"On multiple occasions, reports prepared for the Minerals Management Service (MMS) warned that the blowout preventers (BOPs) used on offshore wells were unreliable. The Department never acted on these warnings. The Department also rejected efforts begun in the Clinton Administration to strengthen federal regulation of offshore well cementing practices."
Kempthorne didn't perform much better -- after the sale of a lease for the Macondo well, the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, to BP for $34 million in 2008, he crowed that the agency had "won the championship." In addition, the memo describes the extent to which the agency underestimated the extent of any spill: "The environmental assessments prepared by the Department for the lease area found that the most likely size of a large spill would be just 4,600 barrels, less than 1% of the amount of oil that has been spilled from the Macondo well since April 20, 2010."
Under Kempthorne, the agency was also embroiled in an embarrassing scandal in 2008, in which it was revealed that government employees accepted gifts, used drugs with and had sex with oil industry officials.
Though the memo notes that Salazar has instituted some reforms and some needed regulations for the agency's Minerals Management Service, which oversees offshore oil and gas drilling, it takes the agency to task for its decisions regarding the Deepwater Horizon. Specifically, MMS granted BP a "categorical exclusion" from the need to conduct a thorough site-specific environmental review. The agency also allowed BP to make several key revisions to the drilling site, changes which have been shown to have potentially played a major role in the rig's disastrous explosion on April 20, 2010.
Driver from: www.huffingtonpost.com
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I try not to use the word "scam" lightly. After all, value is often determined by the buyer along with the seller, and if someone wishes to spend $35 on a bottle of juice, then it's not up to me to stop them.
Not to mention the fact that there are about 10,000 copies of a book out there that contains anecdotal evidence of me spending over $200 on two bottles of whiskey. So, yeah. To each their own.
With all of that being said, I can't help but feel a little skeevy looking at products from MonaVie.
"What is MonaVie?", some of you are asking. This is a good question. On the surface, they are little more than a Tupperware party that sells juice instead of plastic containers. That the suggested price of these bottles of juice run between $25 to $35 dollars for 24 ounces makes them a little more interesting to me.
What do these drinks provide in order for them to suggest such high numbers? From their website -
From powerful antioxidant support to joint, heart, and immune health, MonaVie?s body-beneficial products provide the nutrition you need for a healthy and active lifestyle.
...
Delivering a wide array of antioxidants, vitamins, and phytonutrients, as well as other beneficial ingredients like Wellmune?, plant-derived glucosamine, and plant sterols, every serving is guaranteed to be as efficacious as it is delicious.
In other words, they're supposed to be healthy. So healthy in fact, that it is suggested that the consumer of these juices should only drink 2 oz. at a time, twice a day (once in the morning, once in the evening). After all, one wouldn't want to drink too much health.
Moving beyond their market-speak, a quick look at the label of one of their products reveals what's within:
Proprietary blend of acai (freeze-dried powder and acai puree); fruit juice from concentrate (white grape, nashi pear, acerola, aronia, purple grape, cranberry, passion fruit, apricot, prune, kiwi, blueberry, wolfberry, pomegranate, lychee, camu camu); fruit puree (pear, banana, bilberry); citric acid, natural flavor, sodium benzoate (preservative), potassium sorbate (preservative).
And what are the benefits from this? Well, if the label is to be believed - 25% of your recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C, 12 of the RDA for Vitamin K, and 2% of Iron.
For a point of comparison, here's the ingredient list of a juice I drink often -
Purified Water, Organic Raspberry juice from concentrate, Organic Strawberry juice from concentrate, Citric Acid, Calcium, Potassium, Vitamin C, Magnesium, Vitamin E, Vitamin b-3, Zinc, Sucralose, Pantothenic Acid, Manganese, Vitamin B-6, Vitamin A, Vitamin B-2, Vitamin B-1, Vitamin D, Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin b-12
The benefits here? Well, take a look at the label yourself.
Posted in Others
Does a good friend call upon you to be your best? Could a caring friend hurt you, without meaning to? Has a friend ever helped you to be more aware of your strengths and qualities?
I have often heard the ego being described as some kind of enemy -- the bad guy who takes us off the straight and narrow path of our enlightenment and feelings of well-being. Is that necessarily the case?
In my last two articles, I have been exploring wealth and value from another perspective: "Wealth: A Broader View" and "Learning to Treasure Yourself."
One part of the mission I work with is:
The appreciation of human value.
In human value I recognize as the magnificent human spirit, soul or divine essence that sustains each one of us. It is the loving presence within us that embraces, without condition, every aspect of our nature.
Appreciation has the meaning both of gratitude, and increase of value. In nature, I see something I call "divine economy." Nothing is wasted. Everything has its place and purpose, including the limiting side of the ego. So what is it?
I view the limiting ego as a tool to educate us, to provide a springboard into our true or deeper self. Most of us do not wish to be miserable. We will spend a lot of money on being happy - clothes, treats, toys, holidays, indulgences of one sort or another. However, maybe we do not have to be spending so much in the way of cash to be enjoying greater health, wealth and happiness. Divine economy.
When I choose a tricky subject to write about (such as ego) -- or, it feels, like "it" chooses me -- I often get the blessing (seems questionable at the time) of experiencing the downside, while I get the opportunity to crawl back to the upside. I now come "hot off the press" as it were.
This week, I began working on a new venture. My mind and emotions got so engaged with the way I thought it should go, that I lost my perspective for a while and my creative enthusiasm died. I felt like giving the whole thing up and forgetting about it. When I was able to release myself from the ego and its attachments, a space opened up in which I could see the project more clearly and take it a few steps further.
With friends who speak of the ego as being the baddie, I notice they have a very healthy ego. That is to say they seem to be enjoying their lives, by and large, and successfully manage their way through their challenges. They also seem to recognize easily the traps of the ego and know to refocus on the joy present for them.
If not a friend, maybe could the ego be a servant? Could it serve us as we observe its patterns to reconnect with our essence, divinity, inner knowingness or human spirit?
The ego is made up of our mind and emotions, thoughts and feelings. These are essential items of our human equipment for getting around in the world. The ego is also linked to our personality, the face we show into the world and helps us to get along.
So where does it all go wrong? The limiting side of the ego is the one that criticizes and condemns; that judges and makes comparisons; that fears and dwells in anger, resentment or blame; that gets attached to the past, guilt and shame; grows dependent upon attention and seeks approval; divides and separates; is possessive, obsessive and addictive and otherwise makes us feel miserable.
On the other hand, the healthy ego is a force for good in the world. The passion, emotion and intention to contribute, to benefit yourself and others; simple living and enjoying the gifts of the present moment; responding spontaneously to needs that show up; cooperating to make things better; being one who is peaceful -- all of these can be recognized as aspects of the spiritual ego, the one that loves, cares and serves.
In the past, when I have been feeling a bit down, I have a good friend I would call. Inevitably she would point out how my ego was getting in my way -- with self-judgments, false expectations, comparisons, wishing things were other than they were. In such times, the ego is my teacher and I am the student. These days, I do not generally call her because as soon as I think of her, I look for where my ego has distorted what is true for me.
The next time you are feeling a bit blue or out of sorts, try this Ego Check:
1. Accept
When you feel out of sorts, acknowledge your feelings. Do not criticize yourself for thinking you should not feel that way. Know that these feelings are not who you truly are. Observe and watch your feelings and thoughts. Be with them. They are not right or wrong. For the moment, let them be. Be tender and gentle with yourself.
2. Let go
Take a few minutes to switch off and do absolutely nothing. Breathe deeply. Forgive any judgments you have made, against yourself or anyone else. Disengage from everything you think is so important. It probably is not. You can return to your tasks when you are feeling more refreshed and at peace with yourself. Chances are when you return, you will complete what you need to do more easily, quickly and effectively and with more joy.
3. Refocus
Invest some time in doing something different that gives you pleasure -- a walk, singing to yourself, reading a good book, cleaning up a cupboard, massaging your feet. Take some time to notice all the good in your life and feel grateful for it. Call a friend and find something to have a good laugh about. Listen to inspiring words from a speaker you admire.
SShaw490's comment from last week inspired me:
I've been a little obsessed with the notion that each of us is entrusted by our Creator with some special, personal gift of God-ness that is deep and wonderful. Maybe someone is gifted with empathy, and just understands and feels what others feel and can uniquely comfort those who mourn; maybe it's generosity, and giving to those who are in need is such a blessing in itself; maybe it's passion, and we find life to be an emotional, creative, joyous thing; maybe it's mystery, and we reveal pieces of ourselves to others in stages, yet we long to be fully open and we hope to be that one day; maybe it's the joy of productivity, and we love the process of just doing those small things that build and build and we find our work multiplying like fields of wheat in the summertime.
We all have a little piece of God inside, and we all have the ability to express it in our own unique way. It's good to be alive.
Finally, from John-Roger in his book, Spiritual Warrior: The Art of Spiritual Living
Once you love the enemy inside, once you embrace it, that enemy will transform and yield its power to you. At that moment, you are sitting on the most wonderful wealth of your existence. The ability to do, the strength to do it, and the energy to complete it; that is the true wealth. Out of that come our health and our happiness.
Does your limiting ego get in your way -- for example: need to be right, or self-doubting or over-critical? In what ways does your healthy ego serve you and others? How do you re-connect with your joy when things do not go the way you want? I would love to hear from you.
Driver from: www.huffingtonpost.com
Posted in Others
But his legacy(iS;fe)includes many of today's social insurance programs. During the middle of the 19th century, Germany, along with other European nations, experienced an unprecedented rash of workplace deaths and accidents as a result of growing industrialization. Motivated in part by Christian compassion('t^'t^)for the helpless as well as a practical political impulse to undercut the support of the socialist labor movement. Chancellor Bismarck created the world's first workers' compensation law in 1884.
By 1908, the United States was the only industrial nation in the world that lacked workers' compensation insurance. America's injured workers could sue for damages in a court of law, but they still faced a number of tough legal barriers. For example, employees had to prove that their injuries directly resulted from employer negligence and that they themselves were ignorant about potential hazards in the workplace. The first state workers' compensation law in the country passed in 1911, and the program soon spread throughout the nation.
After World War II, benefit payments to American workers did not keep up with the cost of living. In fact, real benefit levels were lower in the 1970s than they were in the 1940s, and in most states the maximum benefit was below the poverty level for a family of four. In 1970, President Richard Nixon set up a national commission to study the problems of workers' compensation. Two years later, the commission issued 19 key recommendations, including one that called for increasing compensation benefit levels to 100 percent of the states' average weekly wages.
In fact, the average compensation benefit in America has climbed from 55 percent of the states' average weekly wages in 1972 to 97 percent today. But, as most studies show, every 10 percent increase in compensation benefits results in a 5 percent increase in the numbers of workers who file for claims. And with so much more money floating in the workers' compensation system, it's not surprising that doctors and lawyers have helped themselves to a large slice of the growing pie.
